This seems to be the week for prepaid plan updates. Four different operators have made changes to their prepaid plans. The good news is that the changes have all been positive. H2O, NET10 and Straight Talk plans have received more data, Lycamobile cut one plan's price and increased the number of counties that customers can call for free on several others. Here's a summary of the changes and links to more detailed information about each.

Straight Talk (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint MVNO):

All Straight Talk customers on the $45/month unlimited and $60/month unlimited international plans now get 5 GB of high speed data instead of 3 GB. Straight Talk BYOP customers have been getting 5 GB since May. Now users with Straight Talk branded phones get the added data too.

The $23 National plan's price has been cut to $19. It includes unlimited talk and text and 100 MB data, 1000 minutes to 11 countries.

There's a new $23 international plan with unlimited talk, text and data with the first 100 MB at high speed, unlimited minutes to 11 countries and a $1.50 international call credit

The $29 International plan now includes unlimited (was 1000) minutes to 50 countries plus 100 minutes to 11 additional new countries.

The $35 and $45 national plans now include 1000 minutes to 11 countries but lose their $2.50 and $5 international call credits.

The $39 international plan's international call credit has been temporaily increased from $5 to $6.25. In addition to the unlimited minutes to 50 countries that the plan has long included, it now includes 1000 minutes to 11 new countries and 150 minutes to 18 other new countries.

The $55 National plan's high speed data allowance goes from 8 to 10 GB high speed data.

The $59 International plan keeps its unlimited minutes to 70 countries and gains 1000 minutes to 11 new countries, plus 150 minutes to 18 additional countries and 600 minutes to Nigeria.

You are forgetting that Straight Talk eats you alive with taxes so it isn't really 15 dollars more. It's 30.60 per month (on callingmart) vs. 48 dollars or more with ST. I just use my free ringplus phone if I really want to talk more.

The thing I like about net 10 straight talk is the ability to switch what carrier your service will use. Like if you move or want to try another network you don't have to switch from straight talk /net10. Just switch phones or sim cards and you just continue your current month. No fuss.

PTEL and Givmobile for $1 more offers unlimited talk and text with 250mb instead of 100mb. It's the better deal in my opinion plus Givmobile donates upto 8% to charity. Also their customer service is way better than lycamobile.

"The $23 National plan's price has been cut to $19." Well... the old $23 plan had unlimited data, and the new $19 plan does not. So it's not really a price cut on the same plan. It's just a new plan. Not complaining... just saying.

The $19 plan and the $23 plan co-exist on lyca's website, both state that the First 100MB Data at up to 4G LTE, but only the $23 plan state that it has unlimited data. So the statement that the $23 has been reduced to $19 is not correct. It appears they are offering a cheaper plan with unlimited talk/text, but with a capped 100 MB data.

Okay so:- H2O is useless and ridiculous: on the same AT&T network with AirVoice I get 1gb for $30 instead of only 500 mb and the service is better;- Net10: is there any reasonable reason why should someone choose it? It looks useless (like h2o)- Lycamobile: worst service ever!! with only $1 more you can get ptel or givmobile (giv will actually cost $28.4 since $1.60 goes to charity

They may not meet your needs but all three are useful to someone.H2O has LTE, there's no LTE with Airvoice and the 2nd 500 MB is throttled.NET10 is one of the few AT&T MVNO's to offer voice roaming. Funding it with discounted Callingmart refills can be less expensive than Straight Talk in high tax locations.Lyca $19 plan has LTE, PTEL & GIV $20 plans don't. Lyca includes more free international minutes than PTel & GIV.

Unfortunately, the news is not all positive. CallingMart seems to have stopped selling the Net10 Family plans. Net10's web site will knock the $75 plan down to $72 in exchange for signing up for auto-refill. But I don't know if there are any fees and taxes on top of that.

I don't know personally, either, but given that Net10 is an America Movil operation, my guess would be that it does indeed charge taxes and fees. TracFone, for example, will give you a 10% discount for autopay, but then charges about 16% in taxes and fees on the discounted amount...